


Puppy Adoption

by aForgottenWeasley



Series: Blurred Lines [13]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Implied Relationship, puppies!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-14 01:52:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12997233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aForgottenWeasley/pseuds/aForgottenWeasley
Summary: #154 " Where did all these puppies come from?"Darcy's startled yelp and glass shattering one day is what sends Natasha barging into the apartment, a glock in hand and ready for a fight. But she quickly comes to stop, only to stare down in surprise at the sight of the Winter Soldier starfished on the floor with six Corgi puppies crawling all over him."Bad puppy," Darcy had then scolded from the kitchen, a chastised looking puppy being held to her chest. "You know better than to run between my feet.""Lewis?" Natasha then called out, holstering her weapon. "Where did all these puppies come from?"





	Puppy Adoption

The first one to find out about Darcy's secret is Bucky. She hadn't even had the box of pups in the building for three minutes when he caught her, he having been waiting for the elevator to open on their floor as Darcy was heading to her apartment.

The doors swished open, Bucky blankly stared at Darcy until the too big box in her hands wiggled which resulted in her nearly dropping it. Cold blue eyes darted down to the box, an eyebrow raised in question when the puppy canine whimpers resonated from within and Darcy chuckled nervously. "Not a word and you'll get unlimited visitation rights."

Bucky remained quiet as he reached out with his flesh hand and lifted the lid. His lips twitched into the faintest of smiles. "On your way, Lewis," he had said as he stepped out her way. "I'll be by your place after lunch."

Darcy sighed and nodded, and hurried out of the elevator to her apartment down the hall.

* * *

The second to find out had been Steve (being Darcy's boyfriend did have it's perks) and the third had been Natasha. Because while most of the Tower's occupants were willing to take Steve's word on Bucky's stability, Natasha wasn't. At least not yet.

So when Bucky would stray from Steve's side, Natasha would follow. Most of the time he'd be in the Common Room or the gym, but he had finally stumped Natasha when he would disappear inside Darcy's apartment. At first he'd knock and wait for the door to be opened, but as time went on Natasha found that Bucky made himself comfortable and would just enter Darcy's personal space without a single knock.

Darcy's startled yelp and glass shattering one day is what sends Natasha barging into the apartment, a glock in hand and ready for a fight. But she quickly comes to stop, only to stare down in surprise at the sight of the Winter Soldier starfished on the floor with six Corgi puppies crawling all over him.

"Bad puppy," Darcy had then scolded from the kitchen, a chastised looking puppy being held to her chest. "You know better than to run between my feet."

"Lewis?" Natasha then called out, holstering her weapon. " **Where did all these puppies come from?** "

"Foster puppy mom," Bucky answered. "Now grab a Corgi and sit. They're little fluff balls of love and great stress relievers."

* * *

The next to find out about the puppies are Jane and Pepper. Jane had called an emergency girl's night because Thor had finally decided to take up his duties on Asgard, and he and the Astrophysicist just couldn't work things out like they had hoped. So Jane and Pepper met up outside of Darcy's apartment to which JARVIS let them in, and that was how they found Darcy, Bucky and Natasha being overrun by puppies.

Jane cooed and set down her bottle of wine, not even bothering to question why Barnes was there on a scheduled girl's night, she scooping up a rather rambunctious puppy and plopping herself down on the floor to play with him. Pepper took in the chaos, sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose for several long seconds, and then took out her phone to quickly type up something. Then pocketing her phone, she stepped further into the room where Natasha handed her a little female puppy.

"Sit. I'll pour some wine. You're going to need it," Natasha says.

"I can see that," she mumbles.

Pepper's frowning down at the pup in her arms, and for a second Darcy panics, but then the grin the CEO sports as the puppy yips happily before licking her chin has the brunette breathing a quiet sigh of relief. Now there's only one other person she needs to be on board for her fostering several puppies. The other owner of the building, the one who has never owned a living and breathing pet in his entire life. Stark.

* * *

With the puppies going stir crazy in Darcy's apartment, she and Bucky have finally decided to take them out. The pups get taken out for a walk, seeing as the official Avengers are out for a brief mission, and they then end up in the Common Room where the puppies have more space to run around.

At around five in the evening, Jane comes on up from her lab and scoops up the tan and white Corgi she has dubbed  _Cosmo_. For some reason, every time Jane had a paper or book nearby, Cosmo would act as if he were reading it too.  _Taz_ , who is more black than white or tan, is jumping all over Bucky as Darcy crawls after the rest. It was the one pup to become attached to Bucky as much as he was to Darcy, and Darcy always let him have as much time with the pup seeing as she housed them.

Jane, Bucky and Darcy are a little too distracted by the puppies that they don't realize the others have come back until it's too late.

"What the hell, Lewis?! What are these little flea bags doing in my tower?" Tony remarks.

Darcy and Jane freeze, and Bucky merely frowns while hugging Taz closer to his chest. Steve enters behind Tony, followed by Natasha, Clint and then Bruce. Tiredly, Natasha scoops up one Corgi,  _Fayina_ , and coos at the puppy as she plops down into an arm chair. Steve laughs as he walks up to his girlfriend, pressing a kiss to her forehead before falling onto the couch behind her and closing his eyes.

"Aw, man," Clint whines. "Why didn't anyone tell me we had puppies?" He falls to his knees before crawling closer, he scooping up a pup that suddenly became interested him. "I shall name you  _Boomer_  and you shall be mine."

"No, no, no!" Tony complains, his arms spreading out at his sides before falling with a sigh. "No animals allowed! Why does no one follow the rules around here?"

Steve huffs. "Tony, you barely follow the rules around here. Chill out."

"Well, they are cute," Bruce mumbles, picking up a pup that had planted herself on his feet and whimpered quite pitifully. "Where did they come from?"

"The, uh, the shelter was running low on room," Darcy explains. "The Corgi's are pretty young and the shelter didn't want to separate them to different foster homes, so I took them in." Tony makes a noise of protest, so Darcy quickly continues on. "It's only temporary! Until suitable homes are found for them."

"Nope. Definitely not." Seeing that not a single member of his team is backing him up, Tony calls to his trusty AI. "JARVIS, get me Pepper. Tell her the team is rebelling and I need her help!"

" _Right away, Sir_."

Tony makes noises of disgust as Clint, Natasha, Jane and Bucky continue to play with the pups. He's frowning and glaring, and trying his best to not find the two rough-housing Corgi's adorable.

Pepper quickly arrives and just as Tony is sighing in relief and pointing at the cause of his distress, Pepper laughs and drops to her knees. "Where's my Princess  _Buttercup_? Huh? Come here, girl."

"What?! Pep, no." Tony watches in horror as one of the two smallest breaks from the others and hops towards the love of his life in excitement. Another, a pup with darker coloring follows after her, but Pepper only pays attention to the little girl she's now cradling in her arms. "This is ridiculous. They're all going back."

"Don't be absurd, Tony. I already have adoption papers for all of these little critters," Pepper coos at the puppy even though her words are directed at Stark.

"C'mon! Not you too."

"It's settled, Tony. Darcy and Bucky have an attachment to Taz, Jane has Cosmo, Natasha has little Fayina, and I have my Buttercup."

"I got Boomer!" Clint whoops, chuckling as the puppy yips at him.

"This little girl is calm," Bruce admits. "Dogs can be good for anxiety or depression and given what we do for a living, having something that can bring us even an ounce of happiness is a good thing." Bruce nuzzles the Corgi in his hands.

"This is so unfair, guys," Tony pouts. He glances down and sees a dark Corgi seeking affection from Pepper. "And look at this little guy," he says. "You're rudely ignoring him, Pep."

"He's a rambunctious little thing," she says in defense, but still reaches out to the pup to scratch behind his ears. "He riles up Buttercup."

"Well in that case.." Tony finally squats and picks up the Corgi to hold at eye level. The pup wriggles in his hold and Tony scrunches his nose at him. "You're obnoxiously cute. I'm calling you  _Westley_."

"Tony!"

"What?" He feigns innocence. "You can have a puppy, but I can't? Fair's fair, Potts."

"Aw, Buttercup and Westley," Darcy laughs. "I like it." Then looking at Pepper, she asks, "Are you sure about adoption? This is a lot of puppies to have around the tower."

"I'm sure. Besides, Bruce is right. Puppies are good for one's mental health."

Tony grumbles even as he scratches his new companion, and everyone slowly files out while having JARVIS set up appointments with Pepper to later pick up their adoption papers from her.

Steve, who's now sitting on the floor with Darcy and Bucky, drags his fingers back and forth across the floor to have Taz pounce on.

"I'm not adopting him," Bucky suddenly states, frowning at his clasped hands in his lap. "I'm not ready for the responsibility of a pet."

"That's fine," Darcy answers without missing a beat. "Steve and I can adopt him, and you can be his favorite Uncle."

Steve chuckles, not even bothering to refuse Darcy and Bucky slowly smiles. "Yeah?"

"Duh. You thrive when you're surrounded by puppies and I am not going to let you be unhappy." Bucky's smile falters, but Steve blindly reaches out and claps him on the shoulder in reassurance. "You deserve to have nice things and since I figured you're still acclimating to life outside of HYDRA, Steve and I can help you with this one little thing."

"But don't let her fool you," Steve smirks. "She loves this little demon just as much as you. She's doing it for herself as much as she's doing it for you."

Darcy opens her mouth to reply, but with a shrug she remains quiet. After all, Steve is right. She adores the pup just as much as Bucky does.

**Author's Note:**

> For those wondering, Bruce ends up naming his female Corgi _Minnie_ :)


End file.
